Dan Windham

A Harrogate toddler has marked the one year anniversary of undergoing kidney transplant surgery by taking a magical trip to Lapland to meet Santa Claus.

Three-year-old Mia Mason was born with a rare kidney disorder was only given until Christmas to live but, last November, underwent a life-saving six-hour

surgery.

To mark the anniversary, Mia was whisked away by Make-A-Wish UK on a once in a lifetime trip to Lapland after revealing that her dream was to meet Father

Christmas.

For Mia’s mother, Sammi Ramsey, being able to watch her daughter smile as she opened a present from Santa Claus marked just how far the family had come since last Christmas.

She said: “The wish has meant a lot to the whole family. We haven’t been able to have a weekend away before because of Mia’s condition, so it was wonderful for us to be able to get on a plane and create such special memories together.”

From the day she was born to her eventual kidney transplant, Mia was never out of hospital for more than two days.

“Her kidneys failed completely when she was 2 years old, but she was lucky and a matching donor was found in November 2014.

“The transplant went well but she will be on lifelong immune suppressants to make sure her body does not reject the kidney.

Sammi continued: “The wish has given Mia the chance to do something normal, that she wouldn’t usually be able to do, which is fantastic.

“She was so excited in the run up to the wish and just loved every minute of the experience

“She’s doing incredibly well at the moment and is now classed as having a succesful transplant.

“She’s coming up to four now and understands what’s going on, she’s been to see Santa now and keeps going on about it but I don’t know how we can top this next

year!”

There are currently 20,000 children and young people in the UK fighting a life-threatening condition and over 1,000 of them will turn to Make-A-Wish this year.

To make a donation or refer a child to Make-A-Wish visit www.make-a-wish.org.uk or telephone 01276 40 50 70.